I bought the seeds from a reputable seed company and planted them and this is what I got. It doesn't look like the pictures in Amy Goldman's book The Compleat Squash. Is it possible that the seed company gave me the wrong seeds? I knew labels on plants got switched on occasion, but I never heard of wrong seeds coming in the envelope. Of course, this squash is not entirely mature, but it has only about 4 weeks to go until it must be picked.
Stem seems too fat for a C. moschata. They have skinny stems as pictured. It is not uncommon for some companies, particularly in heirlooms to either not know what they are selling or just mislable.
The packet of Romano pole beans that I ordered this year grew into Romano bush beans, so mislabeled seed packets do indeed occur.
Oh dear. I was afraid of that. This looks like Squash "Sunshine" to me from that list of squash pictures Farmer Dill sends the link to. See if you agree:
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Squash.asp
Sunshine comes highly recommended, but I was expecting to grow an heirloom as pictured in Farmer Dill's post above. At least now I know that plants get mixed up in the seed pack as well labels in the pots at the nursery. Thanks for the sanity check.
Betty
Those are lovely Musquee de Provence, Farmer Dill. Have you tried eating them? Do you think they are wonderful as Amy Goldman does?
Betty
The C. Moschatas as a group are the best eating winter squash. Personally I prefer American Cheese pumpkins or the long supersized butternut types.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/61083/index.html
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/91929/index.html
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/60840/index.html
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/117977/index.html
Well, luckily I have some Butternuts -- haven't tried the long butternuts. I will try to do so next year. I have some Sucrine du Barry which are also C. Moschatas.
I guess I will try a different company for the seeds next time.
Thanks for the info.
What a wonderful link, Betty!!! It ID'd the squash I have growing out there! I added it to my favorites for future use!
I actually got the link from Farmer Dill a while back. I bookmarked it and look at it frequently. There are a lot of interesting looking squash there! I love the name of the one called "Cow". Guess that pretty much tells you what its for!
Actually it is a pretty good cheese pumpkin.
So "Cow" isn't just for cows? Are all of those you gave links to good eating? ( While I am thinking of next year's garden)..
There may be a C. moschata that is subpar, but I have not encountered it yet.
Interesting. I have 2 others just like it on the other vine. So there is still a possibility it is a member of the same family (genus?)as Musquee de Province.
All the C. moschatas will have thin woody stems. C. pepo and C. maxima will have fat swollen stems. The latter two have hollow vines which is what makes them so appealing to vine borers.
Learn something every day. I guess that is the value of reading the book instead of just looking at the pictures!
Betty
